Review – Star Trek Annual 2013 (IDW)

To clarify the ‘fotonovel’ thing, The Star Trek Annual isn’t your standard comic book. John Byrne has essentially chopped up and photoshopped together scenes from ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ to create a brand new story.

‘Strange New Worlds’ is designed to be a ‘lost episode’ of Star Trek, and is intended as a sequel to the original series episode ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’, the events of which are recapped here for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

It’s a fun idea, and What John Byrne delivers is actually a decent read. After a couple of pages, the slightly jarring feel of the photo-art fades away, and the book starts to feel like something you would have been given at Christmas as a kid. I’m sure any A-Team or Dr. Who fans will remember with fondness those hardback TV tie-in annuals that were so popular back in the day.It’s almost possible to totally ignore the art here, as the story really carries itself, but as much as ‘Strange New Worlds’ looks like Star Trek: TOS, it doesn’t always feel like it. For the most part, the characters are interpreted very well, but a couple of the longer scenes are told in flashback, or via characters’ inner monologues, and it takes away from the ‘missing episode’ feel of the story. As much as I enjoy Star Trek, I haven’t seen an original episode in a good while, but these elements do feel out of place.

This annual does exactly what Byrne sets out to do with it though, and is a nice representation and homage to the original series, but at 48 pages and a $7.99 cover price, it may be one for the more loyal Trek fans.

Rating: 7.5 /10.

The writer of this piece was:Alan Shields aka (Al)
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